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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Thoughtful gift ideas

Remember the excitement you had as a child during the lead up to Christmas?
All you had to do was wait for it to arrive. Not that waiting was easy, but it
was thrilling. Fast forward to adulthood and December is often a blur of
shopping, cooking and decorating. It’s busy, sometimes stressful and less than
thrilling for many.

To put your Holiday challenges in perspective, the CBC radio program
The Current recently aired a show about poverty in Canada and asked listeners
to share their personal experiences. One of the stories that stood out was from
a mother who, strapped for cash, can’t buy her children gifts. To make up for
it she focuses on giving them her time, love and attention. “What you can’t
give them in one way you have to make up for in other ways,” she said. Her
young children (also interviewed) were grounded, thoughtful and wise beyond
their years.

Her comment made me wonder
what some people who do receive loads of gifts (kids in particular) might be
missing out on. It also reminded me of a recent chat I had with a friend who
said she wished her young daughter’s grandparents would give her daughter time
instead of stuff, an afternoon outing together rather than a toy.

Gift giving can really be so simple.

Thinking outside of the box (literally) for holiday giving is one way
to add more meaning to the Season and giving non-traditional gifts is memorable
and meaningful in ways that are especially appropriate for this thoughtful season.

If you still have gifts to buy (and who doesn’t) or if you’d like to begin a new tradition, consider these worthwhile causes.

Do Good Today is a Saint John-based
organization focused on reducing poverty in Saint John, and supports eight
local organizations that are working to reduce poverty in our area. Links on
this site simplify the giving process, and let you choose to give time, money,
or both, to the Boys and Girls Club, the Resource Centre for Youth, P.R.O.
Kids, First Steps Housing Project and others.

The CBC Saint John annual Harbour Lights Campaign is another
initiative that makes it easy to give to many organizations in one shot. The
campaign supports food banks from St. Stephen to Sussex so your donation can
reach more people throughout our region. CBC is taking donations right up until
December 23 so there is still time to give, if you haven’t already.

Nature Conservancy Canada has “packaged” wildlife habitat to give
as gifts, in an effort to raise funds, and awareness, for the habitat crunch
threatening many of our native species.

World Wildlife Fund – Canada offers
endangered animal “adoptions” and a special initiative to help protect polar bears
and their habitats whereby Coca-Cola will match your donation dollar for
dollar. Adoption orders must be received by December 18 to guarantee arrival in
time for Christmas.

I wish you an abundance of the simple
pleasures that Christmas brings.

-Keep a jug of drinking water in the fridge instead of letting the tap run for a glass of cold water.

-Let Mother Nature wash your car & water your lawn.

-Or, set up a rain barrel to collect rainwater.

Tips: safe (and unsafe) uses for plastics

·Don’t heat food in plastic containers. Chemical leaching is intensified when the plastic is heated.·Avoid plastic wrap. NEVER use it in the microwave. (Use a lid or a dish towel).·Any plastics used for food should be #1, #2, #5.·Don’t put food or drink in any containers marked #7.·Rid your house of soft plastic bath toys and vinyl shower curtains.·Choose alternatives to plastics (glass, stainless steel, fabric)

Tips: cellphone safety

-Buy a low-radiation phone. Look up your phone, or search for a new phone, in this handy guide. (Check under your battery for the model number.)

-Use a headset or speaker. A headset emits much less radiation than your phone and using speaker phone mode keeps that radiation away from your head.

-Less radiation is emitted when you're texting compared to talking, and texting keeps the radiation away from your head.

-Stay off the phone if you don’t have a strong signal. Your phone will emit even more radiation when it’s working hard to get the signal to the tower.

Tips: Steer clear of bottled water

Fill water bottles at home before you head out on a road trip. Even if you’re just out and about for the afternoon.Make sure you have enough bottles for everyone in your family (and maybe a couple of extras).Bring an empty bottle with you when you travel. Fill it from the bathroom tap in your hotel room (so you’re not buying the expensive bottle of water in the room and can steer clear of plastic.)Buy a carbon filter for your kitchen tap if you don’t like the taste of your tap water. Or buy a filter jug to keep in your fridge.At restaurants ask for tap water if they offer bottled water.

Great guide to whole food cooking

It's about attitude and ingredients: a healthy measure of each will have you enjoying food the way it should be.

The reel mower: everything old is new again

This great non-polluting mower doubles as an exercise machine (just ask my husband). It's so quiet you can mow your lawn at 7 am on a Sunday and your neighbours won't hear a thing. It's easy to sharpen and is a light as a feather compared to your grandfather's version.

Great green links

About Me

I'm a green-living columnist & blogger, a food columnist & blogger & a mom of 2 kids. I'm a fan of stoneground flour, lentils and all things vegetable. As a volunteer thing I run a whole food buying group through Speerville Flour Mill which means every three months 800 pounds of organic dry goods lands in my living room. I teach cooking classes to middle school kids and am the marketing manager/recipe developed for Crosby Molasses.